One of Toronto’s top defenders goes up against a multi-faceted scorer who always seems to have a big game against the Raptors. But Johnson has moved to small forward and gets a different defender.

NEED TO KNOW

Raptors point guard Jose Calderon did not travel with the team. The cut over his eye needs more time to heal. . . . Hawks, still without injured centre Al Horford, are holding off Orlando in the battle for fifth in the Eastern Conference. . . . Raptors have lost seven in a row in Atlanta and have dropped two to the Hawks already this season. . . . Hawks are 19-8 at home. . . . Toronto needs one more victory to match win total of the 82-game 2010-11 season.

Ed Davis’ season may have started with a whimper but it’s going out with a bang.

The second-year power forward who has yet to take part in a full-length NBA training camp, is looking more and more like the player the Raptors hoped he would become when they drafted him 13th over-all in 2010.

“Just his aggressiveness,” head coach Dwane Casey says of where he has noticed the biggest improvement in Davis’ offensive game. “He’s making quick, decisive moves offensively.”

But it’s defensively where Davis has really endeared himself to his coach over the past month or so.

Who will win the race to the bottom?
Congratulations, Charlotte, Washington and New Orleans. Unless you go on a late-season winning streak — ha! — you will have the best odds, in that order, in May’s draft lottery. However, Sacramento, Cleveland, Toronto, New Jersey, Detroit and Golden State each have between 19 and 22 wins. If you were wondering why there is a very good chance that Kyrie Irving, Andrea Bargnani and Stephen Curry, among others, will not play for the rest of the season, this is part of it. The Raptors-Nets game at the end of the season could hold incredible lottery importance. This league can be pretty dumb, sometimes.